Shiloh: A Requiem (April, 1862)
Shiloh: A Requiem (April, 1862)
Original Text
Collected Poems of Herman Melville, ed. Howard P. Vincent (Chicago: Packard, 1947): 41. PS 2382 V5 Robarts Library
2 The swallows fly low
3Over the field in clouded days,
4 The forest-field of Shiloh --
5Over the field where April rain
6Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
7Through the pause of night
8That followed the Sunday fight
9 Around the church of Shiloh --
10The church so lone, the log-built one,
11That echoed to many a parting groan
12 And natural prayer
13 Of dying foemen mingled there --
14Foemen at morn, but friends at eve --
15 Fame or country least their care:
16(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
17 But now they lie low,
18While over them the swallows skim,
19 And all is hushed at Shiloh.
Notes
1] General Ulysses S. Grant led Union forces, the Armies of the Tennessee and of the Ohio, to defeat the Confederate Army of the Mississippi under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard at Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing, in Tennessee, on April 6-7, 1862. Nearly 24,000 soldiers died in battle. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1866
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2003
Rhyme